Pygmy, in anthropology, member of any human group whose adult males grow to less than 59 inches (150 cm) in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed pygmoid.

The best-known Pygmy groups and those to whom the term is most commonly applied are the Pygmies of tropical Africa; elsewhere in Africa some of the San (Bushmen) of the Kalahari are of Pygmy size. There are also Pygmy groups, commonly known as Negritos, in Asia. Similarities in the physical features of the African and Asian groups are a result of their long period of adaptation to similar environments.

Virtually all Pygmy peoples are hunters and gatherers, practicing neither agriculture nor cattle raising. Most maintain close symbiotic relations with other groups in their region; consequently most have lost their indigenous languages and adopted that of their neighbours.

The famous Pygmy groups of the Ituri Forest in Congo (Kinshasa) present an example of a culture unchanging as a result of acculturation with neighbouring peoples. Known collectively as the Bambuti (Mbuti), they are probably the earliest inhabitants of the region.

Another well-known Pygmy group in equatorial Africa are the Twa (Batwa), who live in the high mountains and plains around Lake Kivu, in Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi, in symbiosis with the pastoral Tutsi, the agricultural Hutu, and other tribes. Many specialize in pottery, which they market; others hunt; some act as court musicians and attendants.

Westward, in the marshes south of the Congo River, is the large group of Tswa (Batswa), who, like the Twa, have adopted much of the culture and language of neighbouring tribes. They live largely by fishing and trapping.

North of the Congo, in the forest west of the Ubangi River, are the Babinga. This is also an acculturated group of pygmoids, but perhaps because of similarity of habitat they share more cultural characteristics with the Pygmies of the Ituri Forest than do the Twa and Tswa.

Farther to the west, in Cameroon and Gabon, there are other scattered Pygmy groups.

Learn More in these related articles:

...The Luba, Lunda, Fang, Mongo, Kuba, Songe, and Chokwe are among the larger ethnic groups of west-central Africa. The Bambuti (Pygmy) peoples live in the eastern forests, and smaller groups of Pygmy peoples live in the western forests of Gabon.

...the “Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris,” is housed to this day in the Natural History Museum, London, mounted in a standing position reflecting Tyson’s belief that he had discovered the Pygmy, a race of humans known since the time of the ancient Greeks. Tyson wrote of his “pygmie” that it was “no man, nor yet a common ape but a sort of animal between both.”...

The Pygmies, having arrived possibly during the Upper Paleolithic Period, are thought to have been the earliest inhabitants of the Congo basin. The remaining Pygmy groups—the Bambuti, the Twa, and the Babinga—inhabit the forests of Kibali and Ituri, the regions of Lakes Kivu and Tanganyika, and areas near the Lualaba, Tshuapa, Sankuru, and Ubangi rivers.

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Deep in the rain forests of tropical Africa live a small people called Pygmies. Their name is derived from the Greek word pygme, or "fist," a description that harkens back to the days when a man’s fist was used to indicate a unit of length of 1312 inches (34.3 centimeters). The name Pygmy is generally applied to a member of any human group whose males are less than 59 inches (150 centimeters) in average height-about 412 Greek "fists." A separate group of people who resemble the Pygmies but are slightly taller are termed pygmoid by anthropologists.